Diamond Days
is an upcoming open world role-playing visual novel video game created and developed by Illusion Works for release on the Pacifico platform as a launch title sometime during summer 2016. The game has a very heavy story line, and focuses on Liana and her new group of friends at Lakewood University, who have all signed up for a course entitled "Diamond Days", which specialises in the investigation of crime scenes. After one thing or another, the group find themselves caught up in a whole heap of trouble. The game has been rated "M" by ESRB and "16" by PEGI respectively, as the game has violence, fearful scenes and drug references. The game has been praised for having innovative game play and just having an overall unique concept. Others have also pointed out that the genre of visual novel works very well with the title and helps to give it an atmospheric presence. Gameplay has a very big focus on creating an immense open world that allows you to explore. During the story, you can explore a lot of different areas to your hearts content, which helps the player to feel more immersed in the game and feel more of a connection to the characters and environments than they would in other games. Upon completing the main story, you can replay the missions as different university students, such as Saskia, Hattie, Aiden and Britt, which helps the player see more of those characters and understand them better. This also opens up new possibilities in the story, as you may find out that some characters have previously lied to you in some of their statements, and now you can learn why they did (if they did, of course). Through doing this, you can also play some character exclusive missions which are unlocked after the game is initially complete. Missions Missions are the main aims or targets in the game. Each mission has a specific location and character that must be played in that mission. Missions will have different requirements to complete them, some easier ones may be to just reach a certain area, while harder ones may require you to actually have different items in your inventory before you proceed. There are also Secret Missions, which are unlocked under special circumstances. There are a lot of Missions in the game, and it has been revealed that there are a total of 42 missions in the game overall. ---- Quests Quests are similar to Missions in the way that they are played, but they often but have as much story relevance. You can receive Quests from normal characters in the game, or even some major characters when they're less involved in the story missions. However, some quests can help you out in the story, as you can learn new information about different characters which may help you avoid other events later on in the story. The game has a heavy focus on using your information wisely, so quests can definitely help you to learn new knowledge to apply later on. Quick Time Events Quick Time Events are a mechanic that take place in missions and sometimes quests in the game. "QTE" are very quick and often help you to avoid certain situations in the game which may lead to disastrous consequences. However, in some rare cases if may be a better option to lose the quick time event in order for story continuation, so you have to be wise whenever you encounter a quick time event because sometimes actually fulfilling it may not be the smartest option. Popularity Popularity is an important mechanic in . For some quests and other objectives, you will need high popularity as the quest may require you to lend items from other characters or possibly even teachers. Popularity also helps you when it comes to stuff like needing help from classmates with assignments. It also has a lot of other benefits which will be explained later on. Popularity is another mechanic in the game. Popularity amongst the University is very key to help you gain new information from others. For example, if you have a high popularity ranking, then you will be able to ask people for opinions on things and they will want to give you an honest response, however, if you have a low popularity ranking they may lie to you about certain information or just refuse to talk to you at all. There are some ways to keep up and maintain popularity amongst the university. *Go to social events like parties with other university students. *Join a range of clubs. *Become part of other extra curricular activities like the university paper or the debate team. *Campaign for positive changes in the university, for example the food or the bathrooms. *Hang around with popular students. *Just generally be a nice person and don't annoy others. Friendship Friendship is also another important mechanic in the game. Friendship, similar to Popularity, can help you to access new information and even go a step further with getting others to do things for you. Every character that you can possibly interact with will have a Friendship Meter, which fluctuates based on how good of friends you are. There are also different readings this meter will show depending on the connection between the two people. Friendship is also another important mechanic in Diamond Days. Friendship, similar to the previous mechanic Popularity, can also help you to advance in the game. It can help you access new information and even go a step further with making other students at the university do tasks or jobs for you. However, they don't just do this because you've seen them walking around in the game... Every character that you can possibly interact with in the game will have their own friendship meter, which fluctuates based on your friendship with the other person. There are nine different readings in total which you can possibly be with another character in Diamond Days. On the friendship meter, a Diamond will appear to symbolise where you stand with that person who you are currently interacting with. Through interacting with other students you will learn more about them, and progressively you will become better friends depending on how much you communicate with each other. The highest level with someone is Best Friend, and the lowest is Enemy. Here are all the levels included on the friendship meter: *Best Friends. *Close Friends. *Friends. *Friend of Friend. *Unknown. *Acquaintances. *Disliked. *Hated. *Enemies. Interacting with other people in the game will help you fill up your Friend Book, which is the index of all of college students in the game. Once full, you will unlock a new reward in the game. Friendship can bring other benefits such as getting invited to social events, and getting invited to join other clubs or teams that may be taking place, which can help sustain your popularity ranking. If you can become friends with every character in the game, you unlock a special ending scene for the game. Diamonds Diamonds appear in the game as the main currency to buy different things. You will need to collect Diamonds as you travel through the different missions so that you can upgrade your character's stats, which allows them to do more things in the over world as you progress. You can also use diamonds to buy different clothing for the characters to make them unique and personalised. Every character has their own unique wardrobe of clothing available to buy, which opens up a lot of character customisation opportunities. In the game each character also has different attributes which they can upgrade with Diamonds. You can upgrade these whenever you are in the character's house your playing as. You can find a brief outline of all the attributes below. *Stealth: Allows you to be more sneaky and pull off more sneaky tactics without being caught by others. *Sentient: Allows you to be more alert when investigating things around the game. *Social: Allows you to become friends with characters quicker, and learn more information about them faster. *Strength: Allows you to be more strong when it comes to moving heavier objects. *Sinister: Allows you to be more deceitful when it comes to lying to other characters. Every individual stat has it's own advantages and disadvantages which can help or hinder you in the game. Your combination of stats could determine whether in the end you win the game or lose the game, so it is important to choose wisely. Also, in the game you cannot receive enough diamonds in order to max out every upgrade, which makes being precise when picking upgrades even more important. Collectables In the game, Collectables are notable items which you can pick up and collect throughout the game. A lot of them exist as references and easter eggs to other games or other events in Diamond Days, but they can really help you to understand things about certain characters or to understand certain events which may transpire in the game. Derived from the cancelled Radioactive Remastered, there are four areas of item that you can collect. In order of rarity in the game, Books and Page Extracts, Stamps, Tikis, and Jewels. Upon completing a collection you unlock a new exclusive outfit for one of the characters (Either Aiden, Britt, Hattie or Saskia), and when all of the collections are complete you unlock an exclusive outfit for Liana. Game Modes Story Mode: Shimmer of Diamonds Story Mode: Shimmer of Diamonds is the main story of the game. You follow Liana and her friends as they live their lives in the university and outside of the university. The game starts off being light and focusing on Liana trying to make friends within the University, but a lot can change within the time she spends there. The story is laid out like a visual novel, as at the end of each mission the cinematic will play which makes the story seem more alive than other video games may present. There are currently thirteen planned episodes of the story, which all focus on one month's worth of time within the University life. ---- ---- *✧･ﾟ:* SHIMMER OF DIAMONDS *:･ﾟ✧* ---- Exploration Mode In Exploration Mode, you are able to explore the world of Diamond Days without any restrictions that you may encounter in the main game. You can only explore areas you have completed in the story mode however, so you cannot travel ahead to future scenes and experience them before you have unlocked them in the story. University Life University Life is similar to a life simulator game. In this mode, you play as one of the five characters and you can live in the world as a normal university student. You can go to classes, get jobs to earn money, and buy new possessions for your dorm. You can also make new friends in this mode, and you can also choose different courses to attend to earn different qualifications. This mode was added to the game because it reflects what the initial intention for the game was, and the developers thought it would be a cool easter egg to include a smaller scaled version of the intention in the final product. Diamond Days: The Animation Shortly after the release of Diamond Days, a director called Seiji Kishi, known for directing the animes for Persona 4 and Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc respectively, approached Illusion Works about turning Diamond Days into an animation. Illusion Works accepted the offer and together they began to produce the animation, which was also funded by Illusion Works. Since the game itself is a visual novel, it made sense for an anime counterpart to also exist. The animation consisted of thirteen episodes, to reflect the amount of chapters in the game. Every episode released weekly in English and Japanese starting on September 2, 2016. All of the episodes were an hour long, and all reflected the game's story accurately and excellently. Soundtrack Diamond Days also comes with its own original soundtrack which has also been released physically and digitally onto other stores like the iTunes store, through the record label Roulette Records. The soundtrack was a highly anticipated collection of music, as it featured a very strong group of musicians and artists coming together to create a unique collection of music. The fourteen tracks were all created in the Roulette Records studio, with help from many different writers and artists. The lead song on the soundtrack, Diamond Days, was also released as a single from the upcoming EP by Cruel Youth, who is a band signed to Roulette Records. The song charted number one in many different countries, which also helped to promote the game. The soundtrack on online retailers was also at a sale price for two weeks when released, as a release sale. The soundtrack was very well received. Pacificards In Diamond Days, Pacificards unlock new missions for the respective character that you scan. Also with some other Pacificards, if you scan them into the game, then you will unlock them as random NPC characters which you can encounter throughout the game and be friends with. For example, if you scan a Tess Pacificard then you have a chance to see Tess throughout the game, and you can communicate with her and become friends with her. However, this only works with some Pacificards. AidenPacificard.png|Aiden BrittPacificard.png|Britt HattiePacificard.png|Hattie LianaPacificard.png|Liana SaskiaPacificard.png|Saskia Reception has received very positive reviews from several sources and reviewing services. The game has been praised for the unique genres of Visual Novel and Open World Adventure, and it has also been praised for unique character designs and personalities, as well as its atmospheric presence whilst playing. It has also been praised for a different take on how gameplay in these sorts of games would work, as well as having new features to make the game stand out from others in its category. The game also received Sysop Approval on June 23, 2016, about 50 days following the official announcement of the game, and is also being considered to be nominated for featured article very soon. However the game also met some criticism with the lack of modes to play through in the game, which made the game have less replay value than some other games in its category. The game was also criticised for having a high age rating when it could have been easily avoided with some minor adjustments to how the story of the game was approached. The sales of the game have not yet been reported, but it is highly anticipated that the game will meet the sales projection created at the beginning of the project, and will also very likely surpass it to become the most selling first-party game on the Pacifico platform to date. However, this is likely to be short lived with upcoming titles such as Empire and Fantendo - Factions, which are even more anticipated. Soundtrack The soundtrack for Diamond Days met with very positive reception upon release, with almost not criticism at all. The soundtrack was praised for the high quality vocals by the various artists and also the lyrics within the songs, especially the title track. Critics also commented on how it's outstanding how video game music is making such an impact in the music industry, as Diamond Days was the first video game track by origin to become a number one in any country, which was followed by 'Oops', a track made by Martin Garrix. However, the soundtrack was criticised for not having enough instrumental in the tracks, as some were completely overshadowed by vocals. As this is video game music, they expected more tracks like BUS RIDE to take residence on the soundtrack. Anime The animation for Diamond Days was met with overwhelmingly positive reception. The animation was very creatively styled and made the story of the game seem more alive than previously. The animation was also praised for the accurate representation of the characters in the game, and for very fitting and quality voice acting done in the animation. However, the animation was criticised for some seemingly rushed scenes which should have definitely been longer. Many critics also stated that the animation would have been better if there were more episodes to break up the events more easily. The animation succeeded with helping more fans to become interested in the game and the series, which has influenced Illusion Works to possibly make a sequel to the animation or a sequel to the game in general. Gallery Diamond Days.png|Diamond Days logo Liana.png|Liana SaskiaExo.png|Saskia BrittExoSolarrion.png|Britt HattieExo.png|Hattie AidenExo.png|Aiden Trivia * is inspired by many mediums, some include the television series' How To Get Away With Murder, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and the video game series Danganronpa. * was originally intended to just be a short story that would be posted alongside Hymns of Helios, however, the concept was later reworked into the current version of the video game. *This is the second game to feature Liana as one of the main characters, but introduces a totally new supporting cast alongside her. *Saskia was originally meant to star in a similar project to this, but it was later changed to make Liana the main character. **This was due to Liana being a new character herself in the Ziama Prime timeline, so she was added as the main character to add more to her as a character. *Credit to for the Reception table. *Credit to for the Character Arts (minus Liana, who was drawn by .) ---- ---- Category:Video Games Category:Diamond Days Category:2016